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Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Review: "Snatched" features minor charms, but ultimately isn't a steal.

Snatched Review

The first time I saw Amy Schumer anywhere, it was some stand-up routine my wife showed me on her phone one time. I liked Schumer's style. She was fearless, she was ruthless, and she had a gift of making her "I don't give a shit" attitude somewhat endearing. I liked her style and I liked her as a comedy woman. We need more women in comedy willing to cross some lines, and she had a style that would be welcomed. Then I saw "Trainwreck," and while seemingly many in the critical world fell over for that movie, I sat in the theater wondering what all the fuss was about. Then I saw more and more of her, stand-up, movies, appearances and I wondered; is she a fluke?

After seeing "Stranded" tonight, I think Amy Schumer is a fluke. "Stranded" has some charms, but they mostly come from Goldie Hawn and surprise appearances by Ike Barinholtz and Wanda Sykes. Other than that, this is a comedy with no laughs, jokes with no punchlines, funny situations that don't even cause a snicker. When watching comedies, I base lots of my reaction and my review based on how much I laugh, what do I do when I barely laugh at all?

Amy Schumer plays Emily, a girl who is obsessed with social media and social interactions, but has no real life ambition. She loses a boyfriend because of this and now she has nobody to take on a non-refundable trip she is planning. I know its non-refundable because this typically nonexistent trait in this movie shoved down your throat. With nobody else to take, Emily has no choice but to take her mom on the trip. Her mom, Linda, played by Goldie Hawn, never leaves her home and Emily is hoping to get her out of the house. When the duo get to the south of the border, they enjoy some of the days of the vacation. Then suddenly, they are kidnapped and must work together in order to be rid of the bad guys.

With a situation like that, and a movie featuring Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer, you'd think that the laughs one come right after another in a pounding rotation. Sadly, that's not the case at all. It just seemed like the script written by Katie Dippold wreaks of trying too hard. The raunchy jokes aren't all that raunchy and feel like a twelve-year-old made them up. The slapstick jokes aren't very slapstick at all. And of course, the entire movie devolves into a sentimental movie of two people realizing how much they need each other. This wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't telegraphed at the very beginning of the movie. Amy Schumer isn't really playing a character in this movie. She's typical Amy Schumer. Except if she took her normal personality and cranked up the annoying and the obnoxious aspects of said personality. There is really no difference between Emily and her character in "Trainwreck" or the way she carries herself in her stand-up routines, its all the same person, therefore Schumer has no range.

The only people that act like this movie has some sort of pulse is Goldie Hawn, doing what she can with rather stupid material. Then there is Ike Barinholtz. I love this guy. He brings a special life to each character that he plays. Here, he plays Emily's brother who lives at home with their mom. He has a goofy personality, but he knows how to make a human character out of it and make him interesting and even funny. Wanda Sykes shows up here too, and I was wondering to myself just the other night, where did she run off to? Sykes is here, and she is still full of the charm and wit that she had in all of her other movies. She does good work here, and much like Hawn, at least tries to make this movie feel like it has something going for it. Christopher Meloni shows up, but we've seen this type of work from him before, very familiar and very forgetful.

I wish I could say more about how much of a waste of my time this movie is, by and large. But I have a feeling that this movie will be so irrelevant that I will probably forget its existence by the end of the year. Its so inconsequential that I won't remember it after a week. I guess if that isn't a testament to how bad this movie is, I am not sure what is.